SN Magazine

How Egg-citing! Eggs in Pop Culture

The 2017 May issue of School Nutrition includes a Food Focus article by Contributing Editor Kelsey Casselbury. In the piece, she asks you to look beyond the typical box (or basket, as it were) that culinary minds tend to place both chicken and eggs. These are versatile proteins, not only in the kitchen, but on a broader scale as well. People tend to reach for chicken first for dinner and eggs first for breakfast. They are also obsessed with those proteins in the media—and here’s the proof. Below is a list of just some of the eggs highlighted in American pop culture. Have you noticed any of these?

Film

Beauty and the Beast— During his eponymous song, Gaston sings: “When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs / Ev'ry morning to help me get large / And now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs / So I’m roughly the size of a barge!”

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—In the 1971 version of Roald Dahl’s book, Veruca Salt has a tantrum in the room with golden eggs.

The Million Dollar Duck—Much like the geese in Wonka’s factory, this film centers around a duck that lays golden eggs.

The Egg & I—Based on the book of the same name, this film tells the story of a pair of newlyweds who become chicken farmers.

Mulan—Eggs are not a feature in Mulan, but they do debut spectacularly when Mushu makes his ward breakfast: “Look you get porridge, and it's happy to see you!”

Rise of the Guardians—The Easter Bunny, voiced by a jacked Hugh Jackman, shows off his boisterous, egg-filled paradise in this film about the importance of imagination. Other Easter films include: Hop and It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!

Television

Parks and Recreation—Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offerman, is known on the show for his fondness of breakfast. He is quoted as saying, “Give me all the bacon and eggs you have. You may have thought you heard me say I wanted a lot of bacon and eggs, but I said was: give me all the bacon and eggs you have.”

Twin Peaks—Agent Cooper is also well-known for taking breakfast seriously: “Two eggs, over hard—I know, don’t tell me, it’s hard on the arteries, but old habits die hard—just about as hard as I want those eggs,” he says.

Benedict “Eggs,” Talley—a character from the HBO series, True Blood.

Books

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Horton Hatchesthe Egg by Dr. Seuss

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell A little story about how two penguins become a family.

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin Without revealing too many spoilers—some dragon eggs are given to the Khaleesi as a wedding gift.

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkein Bilbo Baggins is particular about his breakfast, as most hobbits are. He often thinks of “frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home,” and when he has occasion to be glum, Bilbo conjures “thoughts of bacon and eggs and toast and butter.”

From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming "The single egg, in a dark blue egg-cup with a gold ring round the top, was boiled for three and a third minutes. It was a very fresh, speckled brown egg from French Marans hens owned by some friend of May in the country. (Bond disliked white eggs and, faddish as he was in many small things, it amused him to maintain that there was such a thing as a perfect boiled egg.)” If you thought martinis were the only things Mr. Bond specifies to the letter—think again.

Music

Fred Astaire—“I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket”

Beastie Boys—“Egg Man”

Kelsey Grammar—“Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs” (Frasier Theme)

Other

Humpty Dumpty—The iconic nursery rhyme portraying the downfall of an anthropomorphized egg has been referred to everywhere: